In 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam gives us a unique and refreshing perspective on how to live life to the full and do the things we really want and need to do. She offers a different approach to managing our lives and activities one week (168 hours) at a time, rather than trying to cram too much into a 24-hour day, often with stressful and disappointing consequences.
The premise of this book should resonate with all women entrepreneurs who feel they are constantly battling time and often unsuccessfully juggling the many diverse aspects of their lives – from creating and maintaining their businesses, doing the daily school-run, helping with homework and school projects, maintaining healthy and happy personal relationships, and finding the time to do all the personal life enriching things that are important for our own self fulfillment and development. Let’s be honest, in today’s busy, permanently connected world, we all feel like there are not enough hours to get everything done, accomplish our goals, and ultimately do the things that make us happy. In 168 hours, we hear from lots of highly successful people who seem to be able to get the balance right, by approaching how they allocate time differently. No-one interviewed in the book is saying this new way of managing time and activities is always easy, but when you do get it right, the benefits can be tremendous.
So, for all those women entrepreneurs who want to create successful businesses without constantly having to sacrifice the other things that matter, such as quality family time, undisturbed sleep time, exercise, and fun stuff, then take a leaf out of the 168 Hours book. Start with a blank sheet of paper and fill up your allocated 168 hours with those things that are the most important things in your life. By cutting back on the less fulfilling activities that usually take up so much time in your day, and rearranging your weekly schedule, you can genuinely make room for the priorities.
"If we re-examine our weekly allotment of 168 hours, we’ll find that, with a little reorganization and prioritizing, we can dedicate more time to the things we want to do without having to make sacrifices."
- Laura Vanderkam
Why LoA loves it:
This is not a book written by a time management guru who lives some idealized, perfect life straight from the pages of their many books, but instead by a working journalist and writer who is trying to find a better way of balancing the demands of family life and career, and finding happiness through prioritizing and managing what really matters in life, rather than sweating the small stuff constantly. It is also refreshingly written by someone who sees their own life as a work in progress, and not a perfect roadmap to be followed on the road to time management utopia.